The Lord of the Harvest
I’m generally not one to talk about how the Lord spoke to me or told me to do this or that. I tend to believe that He speaks to us through the Scriptures, through giving us godly wisdom, etc. But there have been a few times in my Christian life when I can say that He gave me special insight into a question I was facing. He didn’t speak to me in an audible voice, but more often than not, he brought what seemed to be disparate circumstances or disparate thoughts together in my mind and heart in such a way that new insight was gained.
I say that because something like this happened to me a few days in regard to internet evangelism.
I’ve been trying for a couple of months to find a believer to whom I could outsource web development projects for my for-profit business (Hesed Interactive - I hesitate to include the link because that site is in woeful need of a redesign!). The purpose of the for-profit business is to support the ministry of Strategic Digital Outreach (writing and teaching about digital evangelism, consulting with churches and ministries about their use of the web, etc.). My hope has been to find someone to whom I can outsource web development projects at a lesser rate than I would charge (most likely because they live in an area of the world where web development costs are lower than they are here in Santa Cruz, California - not too far from Silicon Valley and the rates for web development reflect that location!).
I also want to use that person to help with some of the evangelistic web projects I envision launching in the next one or two years. Some of these have sensitive aspects, and so I am definitely wanting to find a believer to whom I can outsource work.
It has been a bit discouraging, though, as I have had trouble finding an appropriate person. I have done some initial research into finding someone in Eastern Europe. I have thought about using someone in areas of Canada or the United States where web development rates are not as high. I have thought about using students from our local Christian college. But so far, I haven’t been able to find someone. I have searched on the web. I have made contact with at least one website owner in Croatia, asking them to refer me to their designer. I have contacted a Croatian national here in the States on an internship to see if she might know someone. All to no avail.
While I was thinking about these difficulties a few days ago, though, the Lord brought to mind a verse of Scripture which I haven’t thought of for quite awhile. It was Luke 10:2 --
And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
What in my mind and heart had been two disparate concepts a few days ago (not sure why they were - seems obvious now) suddenly were inextricably entwined. If I want to find a believer to whom I can outsource web development projects, I should not be just using typical internet searching techniques, networking, etc. to find someone. Because I’m not really looking for a simple web developer. I am looking for a laborer for the Lord’s harvest.
So I should be beseeching the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Into His harvest on the web. Puts my search in a whole different perspective.
In a few months, I’m going to be teaching a seminar on internet evangelism in one of our local churches. My prayer will be that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into His harvest from among those who attend the seminar.
For now, I’m going to stop here, but I think I’ll have more thoughts on this in a subsequent post. Any thoughts from our readers?
I believe that the internet provides today's church with a historic opportunity .... to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love in ways which could only have been imagined in times past. The objective of this website is to explore the various ways in which today's technology can be used to spread the gospel around the world.
